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Ginny’s Story: Living with Glioblastoma

Greg and Ginny during one of her chemotherapy treatments. Photo by Cindy Starr / Mayfield Clinic.

Greg tears up when he remembers one of his early visits to the UC Barrett Cancer Center with his wife, Ginny, newly diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in July 2008. “I remember being on the elevator that summer,” he says. “We were going to and from Cincinnati and West Chester every day for something. We were constantly going someplace to see a doctor. And on the elevator there was a young guy with his wife. I think he had a brain tumor. And I spoke to him, and he told me, ‘You’re on a journey, and it’s not going to be over today.’”

Indeed, for Greg and Ginny, a Dayton, Ohio, area couple who fell in love while working as deputy sheriffs, it has been a life-altering journey of hope, faith and a succession of the best treatments medical science can offer.

Ginny was retired from the sheriff’s office and enjoying an active life with Greg and their two children when she was unexpectedly diagnosed with a grade 4 glioma, also known as glioblastoma multiforme. Since then she has persevered against difficult odds, her family, doctors and many friends supporting her every step of the way. Whereas the median life expectancy following diagnosis of glioblastoma is less than one year, Ginny is now approaching year four.

Ginny’s story of survival includes a new glioblastoma vaccine. Ginny was one of the first patients enrolled in a national clinical trial that was available to patients at the Brain Tumor Center at the University of Cincinnati Neuroscience Institute, a multi-disciplinary center within UC Health.

Christopher McPherson, MD, a neurosurgeon at the UC Brain Tumor Center, says, “Virginia’s long survival illustrates the importance of clinical trials and speaks to the huge potential that vaccination treatment has for creating a breakthrough in the treatment for glioblastoma. Every clinical trial not only has the potential to help future generations but also has the potential to provide each study participant with a new treatment that could be the breakthrough treatment for that patient.”

Ginny’s symptoms began innocuously. “Looking back, she wasn’t herself the whole spring of that year,” Greg says. “In April, May and June, she constantly had headaches. I started noticing that she was asking the same questions over and over again.”

At first the problem was attributed to the sinus infections and migraines to which Ginny was prone. In June she went to the hospital with chest pains, but an EEG found her heart normal. Then her vision blurred, and she went to see her ophthalmologist, Gregory Bruchs, MD. “I told him I couldn’t see very well, and his eyes got big,” Ginny recalls.

Detecting abnormal pressure in her both of her eyes, Dr. Bruchs conferred with his partner, Ronald Warwar, MD, then sent Ginny to Miami Valley Hospital South for an immediate brain scan. Before the day was over, Ginny was transported to UC Health’s University Hospital in Cincinnati in an ambulance, with Greg following behind in his car.   Less than a week later, John M. Tew, Jr., MD, a neurosurgeon with the UC Brain Tumor Center, removed as much of the infiltrative tumor as he safely could.

 Additional treatments followed: multiple sessions at the Precision Radiotherapy Center in West Chester, Ohio, followed by the vaccine and chemotherapy. Ginny continues her treatment today under the care of Rekha Chaudhary, MD, a neuro-oncologist at the UC Brain Tumor, with bi-weekly 30-minute infusions of the chemotherapy drug bevacizumab (Avastin). The chemotherapy shuts off the spigot to a tumor’s growth by inhibiting the growth of the blood vessels that feed it. Ginny will continue to receive the chemotherapy infusions indefinitely.

Dr. Chaudhary (pronounced CHOHD-ary) also believes the family’s attitude has made a difference. “They have a lot of gratitude in their life,” she says. “Brain tumors are immune system tumors, and keeping a positive attitude can make a difference.”

Although not nearly as active as she used to be, the woman who lost her father when she was 9 and her mother when she was 16 has proved resilient. She enjoys going to her son’s basketball games and having lunch at the Rusty Bucket with her friends. And she is looking forward to attending her daughter’s golf tournaments in the fall.

While Greg expresses thanks for Ginny’s doctors, the nursing staff and the entire UC Brain Tumor Center team, he and Ginny and their children draw strength from their faith. “It’s a large part of who we are,” Greg says. “Since the diagnosis in July of 2008, our faith in God has increased tremendously. We’ve always been devout Catholics, but we’ve never asked ‘why us’ even one time. We believe God has a plan. We don’t know what it is, but we trust in Him, and this gives us comfort.”

— Cindy Starr